Astrological Houses

& Medical Astrology

August 2023

copyright © 2023 by Judith Hill

Today, the centuries long debate regarding “best” house system rages on - nothing new about that! My students are welcome to use any system they prefer! Who am I to declare that “my” pet system is the only one that works! That said, the ancient Whole Sign House System is the only system that automatically displays “aversion” between any two planets. (Aversion is a specific angular relationship between two whole signs that have nothing in common by either Element or Mode and underpins our preeminent health aspect - the quincunx). We will describe this in more detail below.

So let’s restate and embellish my consistent approval of your favored house system, whatever it may be, by stating:

Medical astrologers can effectively utilize any house system preferred, provided the practitioner is careful to assign a heightened pathological potential to any natal planets positioned in the sixth, eighth, or twelfth signs distant from the Ascendant sign, (anti-clockwise). Count the Ascendant as “1”. The Whole Sign House System automatically displays, and neither hides (by house assignment) any natal or transit planets positioned in aversion to the Ascendant. This is not my opinion, it is fact.         

An averted condition places such a planet in the “natural” sixth, eighth, and twelfth house relationship to the Ascendant sign. These angles indicate that this planet will then be in a sign that holds nothing in common with the native’s Ascendant sign - by either Element or Mode. This condition is known as “aversion,” and constitutes a major basis for a compromised planet within the bodily field.

For example, Gemini and Scorpio are signs “averted” from one another being positioned 150˚ distant from each other on the seasonal wheel. How is that? Gemini is a Mutable Air sign, whereas Scorpio is a Fixed Water sign - so different!

Should your client’s Ascendant sign be Gemini, and their natal Mars be in Scorpio, then Mars exists in an angular relationship to Gemini of exactly six signs distant (no matter what “house” it tenants in your system).  This places their natal Mars-in-Scorpio in a sixth-angular relationship to their Gemini Ascendant. The 6th angular relationship intrinsically carries health potential, just as does the famous “6th house”! No matter that Mars might very well be in the Placidus or Canopus “5th house”, he yet displays “6th angle” health tendencies of a “martian” nature.

Let us compare house systems regarding this essential point.

In the Canopus, Placidus, Regiomontanus house systems, et al, a planet can be in “aversion” by angular placement to the Ascendant, and yet, still in a benefic house! To demonstrate this fact, let’s return to our example of Gemini Ascendant with Mars-in-Scorpio. In some latitudes, in any house system other than Whole Sign, it is feasible for this same Scorpio Mars to happily tenant the fortunate 5th house, while simultaneously situating in a malefic health angle to the Gemini Ascendant by “aversion”. This cannot be denied.

Why is it so important to know the malefic angles that stand in aversion to your client’s Ascendant?

A specific form of essential Vital Life force, at our first breath, infuses the bodily vehicle at birth (in part) through the Ascendant sign. Think of the Ascendant degree as a kind of door for the entry of this force. Secondly, all circles and cycles can be divided into twelve, thirty degree phases, or angular processes, known to physicists as “The Measure Formulae”.

The great physicist Arthur Young writes an entire book on The Measure Formulae and its immediate relationship of these twelve phases to the twelve zodiac signs of astrology in his remarkable book The Geometry of Meaning.

The ancient ones empirically observed in reference to the Ascending sign, how the signs situated at the 6th, 8th, and 12th phase angles typically manifested as weakness of some kind in the body field represented by those three signs, especially the 6th and 8th. It is as if the body field cannot quite absorb the vibrations specific to those zodiac signs, their colors, element, etc. The 6th, 8th, and 12th signs from the Ascendant require strengthening because the Ascendant has trouble “utilizing” these errant signs. It is as if their beams have difficulty being received by the native of the chart. We can also see this process in reverse. At birth, the signs occupying the natal 6th, 8th, and 12th angles from the Ascendant sign do not receive the initial birth influx of Vital Force as strongly or fully as do the other angles.

Conversely, the 5th and 9th phase angles (signs) from the Ascendant, appear to receive a bright influx of birth Prana! These are our notoriously happy angles.

In fact, it often occurs that in non-Whole Sign houses, a planet in the “malefic” 6th or 8th house may not so malefic after all because in truth, it exists in the 5th or 9th angles from the native’s Ascendant sign!

Seasoned astrologers know that all planets are not invariably ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in any angle. One must observe many rules, included “joy”, “dignity”, “fortification”, and aspects to other planets, plus the whole gestalt of the natal portrait.

Nevertheless, we cannot give purely 5th or 9th house meanings to any planet positioned in a 6th, 8th, or 12th phase angle to the natal Ascendant. At least not so in medical astrology!

To satisfy the many questions received on “what house system is best”, I will reiterate my statement from above, adding a last crucial observation:

Medical astrologers can effectively utilize any house system preferred, provided the practitioner is careful to assign a heightened pathological potential to any natal planets positioned in the sixth, eighth, or twelfth signs distant from the Ascendant sign, (anti-clockwise). Count the Ascendant as “1”.

The Whole Sign House System automatically displays, and neither hides (by house assignment) any natal or transit planets positioned in aversion to the Ascendant. Medically speaking, it is a travesty to accidentally miss or wrongly interpret planetary “aversion” to the Ascendant, should it be concealed in a non-malefic house!

RECOMMENDED BOOK FOR THE AVID LEARNER:

MEDICAL ASTROLOGY IN ACTION: THE TRANSITS OF HEALTH